Weird as a Fox
by hakuw0lf
Summary: Alfred and Matt go to a circus, they find a strange fox boy in one of the cages.    UsUk
1. Chapter 1

- Well, this is my first ever fan-fic, so I'm sorry if its bad/OOC or has mistakes etc. ^^'

Chapter 1

Matthew sighed as his brother pulled him quickly around a stack of what seemed to be crates of different types animal food. The strangely dressed man passed by not seeing the two crouched quietly in the shadows, one snickering slightly with a huge grin stuck on his face and the other looking rather irritated and yet somehow passive at the same time… kind of like this sort of thing happened to him a lot.

"..Al… I don't thin-"

"Shhhh!"

"… but-"

"Don't worry! I know it'll be around here somewhere.. we just gotta look around some more." the strong American sounding accent easily overshadowing the much softer Canadian one. Matt sighed again, he knew from experience there was no point in arguing, his best option was too just go along with him and hope he didn't end up getting killed somehow… or get left behind again.

"C'mon!" Al grinned excitedly as he practically dragged his brother past more crates and other odd looking equipment. In the background they could hear the fast and happy sounding music along with the loud and annoying voice coming from the speakers, now sounding muffled from inside the huge striped tent. Inside the tent was completely crowded full of people crammed together, all eager to get a closer look at the show. Though Matt wouldn't admit it he actually was somewhat glad to be out of the overly hot and noisy tent (he was secretly claustrophobic and really didn't like large crowds of people anyway)… but, unlike some people, that didn't mean that he wanted to spend his time sneaking around the 'Strictly Out Of Bounds' section where all the props and such were kept.

It started off not to bad, everything fairly boring and normal at first but it seemed the further back they searched the more and more uneasy Matt was beginning to feel about it… the lights were getting very dim here which was causing the weirdly shaped props (some of which were starting to remind him of old-fashioned torture weapons he'd once seen in books) and cruel looking masks to cast eerie shadows around the walls and floor. The once happy and lively sounds from the show were now much quieter and even more muffled than before, causing them to sound strange and haunting… something about this area was definitely creepy and it was putting him on edge. But glancing up at Alfred it seemed as though he hadn't even noticed that anything was wrong. As they passed a large wooden and metal cage which contained two small tiger cubs cowering together at the back Matt tried to speak up again.

"…It's not that I don't believe you, Al. It's just that… Well, you know, most of the stuff in circuses are fake... They know how to trick people into believing the stuff's real…" his voice was gentle but sounded slightly strained, like he was having to force himself to speak.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but this was real Mattie, I know it was! I mean, you could tell just from looking that it was real!" his boisterous voice making Matt flinch and look around himself worriedly, panicking slightly that something would be drawn to the noise they were making. He needed to leave this place. Now. He stopped moving pulling Al to a stop as well, his voice shaking a little.

"L-look, Al, we should just go-"

"No way! Not until we find it!"

"Why? Look, let's just lea-"

"Just five more minutes!"

Trying to keep calm Matt kept his eyes on the floor following his brother close behind. He wanted to leave but he didn't want Alfred to be wandering around alone in this place either. Taking a deep breath to calm himself he was about to try and ask Al to leave again when he was suddenly dragged to the front of another cage that was almost hidden behind a stack of more crates. Startled by the unexpected movement he instinctively snapped at Al for his sudden behaviour… not that he was listened to anyway.

"Look, look! Mattie I told you!" he was grinning even wider now, crouched in front of the cage bars and pointing excitedly to something that was laying in a heap on the floor inside. Matt crouched down next to him and peered into the cage, secretly curious himself as to what had gotten his brother so hyped up about. At first glance he thought it was just a type of animal in clothing, he could make out a pair of back legs that looked like a reddish-brown dog and a matching front leg… but there was something wrong about it's shape and it was making him feel more and more uncomfortable by the second… leaning closer he looked more carefully.

The thing seemed to stretch out a bit in its sleep. Matt felt his jaw drop as he noticed a human hand and arm along with the animal limbs, but couldn't even react when he realised that it really was (as Al had insisted what he'd seen before) a human. Now that it was stretched out more he could see it looked like a boy around their age, maybe slightly older but it was hard to tell. He had light, extremely scruffy blonde hair, very pale skin and was wearing old and worn looking brown shorts and a dark ripped green T-shirt… his face also seemed to be flushed and he was panting a bit, like he had a slight fever maybe. The 'interesting' thing about him though was that he had a large pair of pointy reddish-brown ears on either side of his head along with matching dog-looking back legs (ending at around the knees) and a large fluffy tail. But weirdly he only had one animal front leg (ending at the elbow) the other was a normal human arm.

"A-al, t-this-"

"See! Isn't it cool? Ha! An you thought I was being stupid, Now all we need to do is get him out of here and we can go." he finished proudly, still grinning ear from ear.

"What? W-why would we do that, eh?"

"Cause he needs help! and hero's save people in need, I'm the hero remember!"

"You can't just go arou-"

"First we gotta figure out how to open the cage though, its locked. Hmmm"

Matt sighed looking back at thing in the cage. He should of just stayed home today… he could be at home right now, or he could be out somewhere nice... like the movies.. with Gilbert… anything, anything would be better than this. Why did he always get dragged into these typed of situations?

The thing was looking at him. Matt's breath froze suddenly in his chest feeling as if he had been kicked and he felt his blood run cold. One of it's eyes had opened and was looking directly at him. His heart had stopped for a second and felt sick as the hairs on the back of his neck stood up,. In fear he fell back so he was sitting of the floor as it's large green eye continued to stare at him unblinking.

It smiled slightly and wobbly began to sit up, though it looked kind of weak there was something about it that seemed dangerous. Alfred grinned as he finally noticed it was awake.

"Hi! I'm Al, this is my brother Mattie, and we're here to save you, so don't worry, okay, hero's promise!" Al laughed happily, excited to meet it and not seeming to be bothered by it in the least.

"Well hello, Al. It is a pleaser to meet you." it replied in an almost sadistic sounding British accent as it grinned toothily back at Al.

- And that's it for now (sorry if its bad/spelling/etc but I was really tired when writing this). ^^… Does anyone want me to continue this story?

(Edit: really sorry about the underlining, I don't know why that happened or how to change it, sorry ^^'')


	2. Chapter 2

- Thank you so much for reading and the nice reviews! :) And Alphine: I'm going to try and include romance (UsUk hopefully, but I'm not good at romance stuff) ^^

"So do you know how to unlock the cage, like where's the key?" grinning Al asked as he glanced around the area briefly. In truth he was extremely interested in his new 'friend' and had loads he wanted to ask it, but first he wanted to get him out of here as soon as possible and to his house where it was safe. Though his friends had often said he couldn't 'read the mood' (which admittedly he couldn't), he could still tell when something was serious and needed dealing with, …he really wasn't as stupid as most people seemed to think he was. Matt just sat quietly where he was trying not to move or draw any attention to himself… which would normally be easy for him, but the creepy and tense atmosphere that hung around the place was making him twitchy.

"Hey… are you all right there?" Al asked the fox thing, his grin fading and voice sounding a little worried now. The creature seemed to have gone into a sort of daze as it stared in Alfred's direction with its head tilted to the side slightly, its eyes looking completely blank and hollow, yet it was still smiling oddly. It didn't move or show any sign of hearing Alfred, it just sat there dead still and unblinking. Concerned Al leaned closer holding onto the bars of the cage with both hands to support himself. He tried again this time slowly reaching out one of his hands into the cage to get its attention. Matt felt his heart freeze at this, terrified as a graphic image of his brother getting his arm ripped off suddenly played through his mind. He wanted to move, he wanted to grab Al and drag him away from the cage and out of here right now. But his body felt frozen in place, unable to move or speak.

"Hello? Are you okay? … cause, well, you're looking a little… strange. Do you feel sick?" Al asked a little louder this time but keeping his voice gentle, not wanting to frighten it. He waved his hand slowly in front of the things face but again it showed not reaction or movement whatsoever. It didn't blink and its creepy smile stayed stuck on its face, making it look kind of like it was stopped in time, like a living photograph. Frowning Al carefully slipped his hand under the things unruly bangs and lightly felt its forehead. As he had thought it was unnaturally warm.

"Dude, you have a pretty bad fever! But don't worry, okay? Cause I'm gonna save you!" concern and confidence set in his voice as he made up his mind that he would definitely save it no matter what the cost. Absentmindedly he let his hand fall from the things face as he tried to figure out a way to open the heavy lock that was securely on the cage door. At the loss of contact it blinked once and glancing up Al noticed its eyes move sharply and focus on him. Al grinned, happy that it finally noticed him.

"Hey! You with me now? Do you know where the keys are?"

"Why?" its voice sounded spacey and light, like it secretly found something amusing, but it had a slight edge of something else to it that Al couldn't place.

"Well, So that we can open the door, why else?"

"Why?"

"… I just said-" Alfred jumped and voice cut off as the thing unexpectedly took hold of his wrist with its human hand. Al had forgotten that he'd left his arm in the cage. It pulled his arm closer to itself and lifted it in front of its eyes curiously, turning it gently now and then to see it in different angles. Alfred relaxed again once he realised that it was doing and let it continue, feeling a smile tugging at his lips at how weirdly cute it looked holding onto his wrist like that.

Cautiously it lifted its other animal arm and lightly touched its paw on the pack of Alfred's hand. After applying a little pressure a few times it moved the paw in a side to side motion as if stroking his hand, it seemed to have gone in a daze again but its smile was a little softer and less sadistic looking than it was before… it almost looked like it was in pain somewhere. Al watched in fascination, barely daring to breathe in case he would interrupt it, its paw was surprisingly soft and delicate but he could also feel the hidden sharp claws brushing gently over his skin, if it wanted to it could probably rip through his flesh with ease…

At some point it had turned Al's had so that his palm was facing upwards, gently it rested its paw in his open palm. Just barley it could feel the humans warm pulse beating through his hand and into its own paw. _His skin is so soft_… it thought distantly, somehow it made this one seem so kind and different compared to the harsh cold skin of that other human it'd felt…and it also reminded it of something… from a long, long time ago when it was still a child. The distant and long forgotten memory took it off guard, making its heart ache painfully against its chest and its stomach clench sickeningly.

Curious as to why it'd stopped moving, Al dragged his wide eyes away from the paw resting in his palm up to the things face. He frowned when he saw that for the first time since he'd seen it, it wasn't smiling. It's rather large brows were furrowed together and its emerald green eyes were now misted over with unshed tears, he could also make out a sharp canine tooth pressed harshly over its bottom lip close to drawing blood. Alfred felt a pang of pity pulse through him at this. For some reason he really didn't like seeing his new 'friend' upset like this.

Carefully Alfred closed his hand, wrapping his fingers securely around the others paw gently to hold it. Surprised and brought out of its daze it quickly looked up at Alfred, bright blue and deep green eyes instantly locking with each other. It mumbled something under its breath that Alfred could only just make out as 'why'. Al smiled kindly and gave the its paw a reassuring squeeze.

"Don't worry about anything! The hero's here now, and as long as I'm here everything's gonna be fine, okay?" The thing looked at him blankly for a second before its sadistic grin suddenly appeared again and it hunched over laughing loudly and making a series of amused barking like noises at the same time. It was a odd sound to say the least. When it had managed to compose itself a little it looked back at Al with tears in the corner of its eyes and wearing an almost crazed expression. Its grin seemed to have doubled in size and its eyes almost appeared to be giving off a green glow as they bored deeply into Al's own. Alfred just stared back.

Opening its mouth it looked as if it was about to say something to him but stopped, suddenly closing its eyes and pulling its paw away from Al and up to its mouth as it began to cough rather violently.

"Whoa! Hey, hey dude! are you okay?" Al shouted, panicking he reached towards it in an attempt to rub its back or something but he couldn't reach that far through the bars. Slowly it looked at him when the coughing stopped, it was struggling to breathe a bit but thankfully (to Alfred anyway) its usual twisted smile was stuck back in place.

Shakily it moved closer to the bars of the cage. Closer to Alfred. It held onto the same bars as Al to support itself, its hand and paw inches from touching Alfred's own two hands. It looked even more pale than had before as it brought its face so close to Alfred's that he could almost feel its breath against his skin. Al suppressed a shudder as he felt a something fluttering in his stomach.

"Why are you bothering to help something like me?"

- and that's it for this chapter, Thankyou so much for reading! ^^ (sorry for OOCness and any mistakes) … does anyone still want me to continue the story?


	3. Chapter 3

- Thank you so much for reading and the reviews!

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"Don't say something so stupid!" Alfred half shouted, shocked at its harsh words he gripped tighter onto the cold bars.

"Oh? …And how are my words 'stupid', prey-tell?" it sneered back weakly, teeth bared slightly.

"Well, you need help, so why wouldn't I help you?" Al was looking it straight in the eyes, a determined and confused expression on his face.

The thing chuckled darkly at him, a sinister gleam forming in its eyes as it shifted foreword pressing its face against the gap in-between the bars, it was so close now that its noise was nearly touching Alfred's. Smirking at him, its voice almost sounding playful now, that is, if it weren't for the venom that was at the edge of its words causing Al's hair stand on end.

"But again, why _would_ you? I dare say I've never even met you before… we have no connections and you have nothing to gain from helping me… and after all, I'm nothing but a 'thing' to you, right? Of less worth than a bloody dog to you huma-"

"Shut up!" Al cut it off harshly before it could continue, hurt by its opinion of him. He didn't move or look away though, instead giving it a stern look, his eyes glassy and hurt.

The things smirk faltered then, its ears folding back as a look of guilt and confusion crossed through its face from seeing Alfred's reaction. …_As I thought before, this one really is so much different than those others. _It thought vaguely. Alfred noticing its expression sighed, his own expression softened into one of understanding. He knew that it probably had good reasons to think like that. Clearly it had been mistreated before and it was locked up in a cage after all… that and Al also knew himself, from first-hand experience how truly cruel and selfish people could be towards something different, something they deemed 'outcast'. Frowning he quickly pushed back a memory that was forming, he really didn't want to remember that right now.

Before he realised what he was doing, Al had let go of one of the bars and cautiously lifted his hand to stroke the side of its face with his thumb, wanting to comfort it. The thing flinched away from the unexpected touch, its eyes scrunched closed and clenching its teeth as if expecting to get hit. Al frowned again but he didn't give up, instead moving his hand to stroke its hair softly. He spoke up again, this time his voice gentle but happy, wanting to reassure it.

"Hey, dude, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to snap like that… but, well, you know you really shouldn't talk like that. I know that there are some horrible people about, but, honestly, not everyone's like that. I promise. And I promise that I really do want to help you, no catch, and I'm not lying… I'm gonna be you're hero, okay?" Al smiled as the thing looked at him strangely with its mouth open slightly. For a second he thought it was going to cry but was surprised when it started that weird laughing-barking again, sounding much like a deranged hyena. It grinned widely at him, sounding airy and a little crazed when it spoke.

"Heh, you're… a little weird, you know that?"

"…Yeah, I could say the same for you." Al grinned back.

Letting go of the bars and standing up, Al winced as he stretched out his back which had been aching from being crouched for so long. He then took a hold of the lock, tugging at it to test its strength… it didn't seem like even he would be able to break it by hand… but maybe if he had a pole or metal bat of some sort he might be able to break it off, he was known for being unnaturally strong so that should work. With that in mind he started searching around the area and with the amount of stuff and crates crammed about the place it shouldn't be hard to find something of use. The thing watched him with a raised eyebrow, quietly amused. It had taken quiet a liking to this 'Alfred' guy it decided.

After a minute of rustling about in a few piles cardboard boxes it heard Al make a 'whoop' like noise as he emerged from the shadows carrying something like a crowbar and grinning proudly to himself as he approached the cage. It watched him silently, smiling as it felt a glimmer of hope start to grow in its chest for the first time in years.

"Okay! You might wanna cover you're ears, cause I think this'll be pretty loud for you in there." Al stated calmly but with an excited gleam in his bright blue eyes at the prospect of them finally escaping. The thing nodded and lifted up its hand and paw, pressing down both of its ears against the sides of its head. It then looked back at him, giving him the go-ahead. Al couldn't help but giggle a bit from excitement and at how cute the fox guy looked like that as he lifted up the metal tool, ready to strike. Suddenly and forcefully he brought it down against the thinner strip of metal that joined the padlock to the chain. It made a sharp loud clanging noise that echoed ominously around the area and sent vibrations from the impact through his arm. Cringing, Al worriedly looked about himself, only just realising that the noise could draw some unwanted attention.

He couldn't see anyone around though and the whole place was deadly quiet, but he felt a strong and sickening chill run down his spine and into his gut. Quickly and trying not to panic he raised the tool again, the lock had a large dent in it now and it should only take one more hit for it to fall. Another, even louder echo rung throughout the area as the padlock fell heavily to the ground. Quickly dropping the tool Al desperately pulled the chain from around the door and flung it open, nervously he glanced around the area again checking for any sign of movement or noise. It had gotten a lot darker and later now than it was before, he didn't have his watch on but he guessed from about the time he'd left the show and at how long he'd been here it was around 11:30pm.

The show had ended a while back, hence why everything was so quiet and desolate. The whole place was unnerving, it made him tense and was giving sense of dread in his gut, kind of like the feeling you get in a nightmare where you can't see anything, but you know that something really bad is about to happen.

A rustling noise and movement to his left made him jump violently and spin around. He let out a breath relaxing when he realised it was just the fox guy crawling from out of the cage, he rubbed his hand over his face trying to calm down and compose himself, he couldn't afford to panic right now. Looking back at the thing he watched as it struggled and wobbly stood up on its two back fox legs, Alfred couldn't help but stare at them slightly in fascination as it balanced on the two small paws, the reddish-brown fur reached to just around its knees, from there the rest of it looked completely human (except for its left arm, tail and ears which were fox-looking). Al noticed worriedly that it's odd smile was looking much weaker now than before as it shakily walked towards him, and he could also see now that it was a bit shorter than him.

Concerned by how unstable it looked Alfred reached out and held onto its shoulder to help steady it.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Yes, I am quite all right. Thank you…. So, what happens now?" it laughed again, but much more quietly and less demented than before. It took a hold on the sleeve of Al' shirt to help keep its balance, it was starting to feel really tired and wanted to leave this place badly. Al smiled at this, happy that it seemed to trust him.

"Now we go back to my place!" Al replied enthusiastically, giving it a thumbs up. He was about to lead them back in the direction of his apartment when he stopped, noticing the things face. It showed a look of pure horror as it stood stock-still, staring wide-eyed in the direction behind Alfred. Feeling sick Al slowly turned around, his movements stiff and jerky. Not far in the distance he could make out the shadowed silhouette of a man moving towards them.

.

- end of this chapter, Thankyou for reading and the nice reviews! ^^

(sorry for OOCness/mistakes etc)


	4. Chapter 4

Alfred watched silently as the man approached them, his mind had gone blank in his panic and he was desperately trying to comprehend the situation. Should he make a run for it, or face him head on? Or should he try to make up some sort of lie or excuse and try to slip away? He felt the thing dash behind him, and it gripped tightly on the back of his shirt, pressing its face into his back.

He couldn't focus enough to get a good idea and soon found it was to late to do anything anyway. The man was now standing in front of him. He was tall, maybe an inch or so taller than Al was and he had somewhat messy dark reddish hair along with light stubble under his chin. His green eyes searched Al's threateningly as he puffed out some smoke from his cigarette, before he took it in his hand to speak. His voice was low with a heavy Scottish accent, clearly irritated and intimidating.

"It is made very clear that this area is out of bounds. I'm going to have to ask ye to leave right now, please."

"Y-yeah I was just… I was.. Just, going to-" Al stammered, not knowing what he was going to say and worriedly he noticed the mans gaze shift slowly from him, one of his eyebrows twitched as his expression darkened considerably.

"And why is _that_ out of it's cage, aye?" warningly the man dropped the cigarette, stepping closer to Al when he had noticed it hiding behind him. Protectively Al put his arm out to his side to act as a barrier, preventing him from getting to it. Al stood up straighter, his chest puffing instinctively as he gazed levelly back at the man who was now much too close for his liking. He was trying to sound stern but his voice still came out a little uncertain.

"Sorry, but I'm taking him with me. What you're doing to him isn-" he cried out in shock, the man had suddenly grabbed him by the front of his shirt and violently slammed him into the side of the wooden tigers cage, he held him there forcefully, his feet only barely touching the ground. Al gasped for breath and he tried to pull the mans hands away from him, but he was feeling dizzy and weak from the sharp impact to the back of his head. Al heard the man speak into one of his ringing ears, his voice sounding strained from anger as he spoke through gritted teeth.

"Listen here ye stupid bastard, don't ye ever talk back ta me like that. As I said, this area is off limits. You are on my property. And that thing belongs to me, not you. Do ye understand? Now I am going to ask you nicely to leave, and if ye dare try something stupid with me again I'm going to break ya we-neck."

Alfred had managed to catch his breath and he could think more clearly now that the pain in his head had subsided more, though it was still a little difficult to breathe with the pressure against his chest, that and the strong smell of smoke and alcohol from his mouth was making him gag. Glaring full-force at the man, he could feel his anger rising. There was no way he was going to leave the fox guy with this man. No matter what he would save it, he would be its hero. At this thought Al felt his confidence grow and he grinned cheekily back at him… this man obviously didn't know just who he was messing with. Al spoke up again, this time his voice was calmer and relaxed.

"I'm taking him with me. He isn-" snorting the man grabbed a handful of Al's hair, painfully yanking his head to the side. He smiled evilly at him, licking his lips and Al could of sworn he saw the mans eyes flash yellow for a split-second. Sounding amused he hissed his next words into Al's ear again, gently tracing a hand across Al's face in an almost loving gesture.

"I guess ye must want to die, aye? Well needn't worry, I can do that for ye… but... I think you're the type who'd rather die slowly, aye?" Al winced and struggled as the man dug a sharp thumb nail into his cheek, causing blood to flow out of the puncture. The man chuckled giddily, dragging the nail down all the way to the corner of Al's mouth, a bright red line following behind it.

"Ye know, I'm glad you came here, I haven't had someone to play with for far too long… heh heh, how about I peel off your skin first?… starting from ya face I think… or... maybe you'd rather I cut your eyelids off first. That way ye can watch as-" suddenly the man howled out in agony, dropping Alfred who slid down to the floor in shock.

The thing had been watching the encounter from the side, it had been terrified at first, barely able think straight, it was terrified of that man. It had met Scott for the first time when it was still young, and only for a short space of time until he left and it had never seen him again until... one horrible night he had found it again, that was three years ago now. Even so, it had never been able to forget him once in that long amount of time without him. The man brought so much fear to it that it hadn't even been able to look directly at him since it was captured three years ago, the mere sound of his voice causing it to tremble.

But somehow watching Scott treat the other human like that, his anger had began to grow dangerously. The 'Alfred' guy was kindest thing he'd met, he was the first person to actually bother with him. He actually talked to him. Nobody had even spoken to him in three years (well, except Scott, but that didn't really count as 'talking'). Al had tried to help him… his ears twitched when he heard Alfred hiss in pain, focusing quickly he saw the bright red liquid slipping down Al' cheek. A surge of pure hatred washed through him, nearly chocking him. How dare he hurt Alfred... he couldn't let that happen. Alfred was _his_ human.

Snarling it darted from where it was and pounced at Scott, its sharp teeth latching onto the arm that was holding Al's shirt. It heard Scott cry out loudly when it latched on and it felt his nails dig into the back of his neck, trying to rip him off of his arm. Determined it bit down harder, feeling hot blood fill its mouth and travel sickeningly down its throat. Eyes narrowed sadistically it started flailing wildly, its front paw and hand viciously trying to gorge the mans face into shreds, while its back legs were both lifted off the ground and scratching repeatedly at his stomach and legs. It had its eyes closed now as it felt itself being swung around and numerous punches and kicks that landed across its body, but it wouldn't let go. It had to protect Al. This time it wouldn't let Scott hurt something it cared about, even if it killed it.

Alfred watched them for a moment attacking each other, loud curses and growls filled the area with drops of blood and fur hitting the floor. He desperately wanted to help but with the way they were lashing out at each other he wouldn't be able to get close enough and he might end up hurting the fox guy. He stood up tensely, watching them intently for the change to punch that Scottish freak. It was then that Al noticed something strange… the freaks eyes really were flashing a yellow colour, it looked as if someone kept shining a flash-light in and out of them. Out of nowhere there was some sort of static sound (kind of like a broken t.v) followed by a sudden harsh yelp as the thing was thrown to the floor, landing painfully on its back, wobbly standing up and panting roughly, it glared daggers at the man wanting to kill him, though it was having a lot of trouble balancing by now. The man stood facing it holding the side of his face as blood poured thickly from between his fingers, a mixture of rage and amusement on his face. He was the first to speak up, his voice completely placid and unfazed.

"Well well, now, how un-like you to be so... violent… seems ye be needin more discipline… maybe I should teach ye respect… how about the same way as before, aye? …but since we can't be using poor little 'Fiver' this time, how about we use this guy over-"

"Fuck you!" it spat, cutting him off. It was bristling, teeth bared but it looked extremely scared now, tears threatening to spill from it eyes.

Scott smiled, leaning his head to the side looking curious as if about to do something. But before anything else could happen there was a loud cracking sound as Al suddenly appeared from nowhere, punching him full-force in the face and most likely breaking his noise. Scott flew back on impact, crashing loudly into some equipment a few feet away. He was still and didn't get up again. Al was trembling and pale, but he didn't hang around. Quickly he grabbed the things hand and started running as fast as he could in the direction of his apartment. Once they were a fair distance away he looked back at the thing he was dragging along and grinned at it reassuringly, squeezing its hand.

"Don't worry about anything, okay? I'm here now remember, so everything's gonna be okay. Promise."

.

- end of the chapter, thankyou so much for reading! ^^ (sorry for making Scott kinda evil here, love him really but it needed a bad guy) …. Anyone still want the story to continue? (sorry for asking that a lot)


	5. Chapter 5

After a good ten minutes of running (taking the more confusing route to his apartment, just to be safe) Al decided by now they should be a safe enough distance away to stop for a bit, he slowed down to a jog before finally stopping on a more deserted pathway. It was still about a 45 minute walk from here, but luckily because it was Sunday and now very late at night, it meant that there was nearly nobody around to see them.

Concerned and out of breath slightly he turned to the thing he'd been dragging along behind him. It was hunched over with a paw held to its chest gasping for air and it was making a loud rasping noise like it was struggling to breath properly. Worried Al put his hand on its back and began rubbing circles there, murmuring soft words trying to help ease its breathing and comfort it as the same time. After a minute of this it began to calm down a bit and was able to stand up straight again, it looked up at Al and smiled thankfully at him but its voice sounded shaky and weak when it spoke.

"Thank y-you."

"Hey, no problem. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, I'm… I'm fine now." considering how pale and unstable it looked, Al guessed that probably wasn't true, but he decided not to push the issue. There wasn't really anything he could do to help it right now anyway, they needed to get home first. He smiled and petted its shoulder gently.

"Well, it's not too far of a walk until we're home, …around forty-ish minutes I think. Will you be okay with that?"

"Yeah…" it's voice was quiet and distant, sounding far-away. Al frowned feeling his concern rise.

In truth it was beginning to feel extremely dizzy and light-headed, its mind was getting a little jumbled and for a while now its vision had been slightly blurred and its legs were feeling weak. It desperately wanted to sit down and just close its eyes for a moment… but Alfred looked stressed enough as it was. It didn't want to worry him more than he was already or be a bother to him after all that he'd done for it…

Alfred opened his mouth, about to say something else to it when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. His heart leapt painfully to his throat and suppressing a shriek he spun around, tensing up. He was met with the scared violet eyes of his brother, who stood shivering and white-faced, looking much like he'd seen a ghost. Speaking up, his voice was meek and strained.

"U-uh, Al, I t-think it'd probably b-be better if we just called a t-taxi, e-eh?"

"Matt! Hell man, you scared the crap outta me! When did you get here?" Al shouted, letting out a deep breath and closing his eyes, relaxing as he felt his heart slow down from the shock. Matt flinched and stared back at him, startled by his sudden outburst.

"W-what do y-you mean? …I've b-been here the whole t-time…" he trailed off meekly, his brother was gawking at him now. Really. He should be used to this by now with the amount of times this happened, but it still kind of hurt that his own brother could forget about him so easily. I mean, yeah, Al didn't exactly have the best attention span in the world, but still…

Matt was distracted from his thoughts though, when he noticed the fox guy had began to sway warningly on its feet. Alarmed he pointed to it, shouting.

"A-al! watch him! He's-" Alfred, his quick reflexes kicking in, jumped and just barely managed to grab hold of the neck of its t-shirt as it fell suddenly towards the ground, quickly preventing it from hitting its head on the sidewalk. Carefully he lifted it up by its t-shirt trying to get a better grip on it and turned it around gently in his arms and he knelt on the floor holding it and resting its head in the crook of his elbow. It looked sickly pale and was completely dazed, struggling to keep its eyes open. Panicked he shook it gently, hoping to get its attention.

"Hey, oy, dude! What's wrong? Can you hear me?" Al was distressed and wide-eyed as he watched its face intently for any sort of reaction. Panting, it managed to focus its glazed green eyes on him briefly and seemed to try and say something, but only managed a mumbling sound before its eyes slid closed and its body fell completely limp in his arms. At this Al instinctively tightened his hold around it and looked worriedly to matt.

"Matt! What's wrong with him? He's not dead is he?" Matt sighed, he was well known as being the 'smarter' and 'more responsible' of the twins and due to his personal interests he had taken advanced biology in college. Because of his quiet and shy personality he hadn't had a lot of friends so he ended up studying by himself a lot, rather than going out to wild parties and gatherings. This meant he had gotten pretty good grades and had knowledge in the medical field (and just about anything else for that matter).

He knelt on the cold floor next to Alfred and cautiously placed two fingers on the things neck feeling for its pulse. It was weak, but regular which was a good sign, and inspecting its face he could see it was extremely pale with flushed cheeks and large dark circles around its eyes. Feeling its warm forehead, he could tell that it had a fever but it wasn't dangerously high so it shouldn't need to go to a hospital or anything. Pushing up his glasses that had slipped down his nose slightly, he looked at a stressed looking Alfred and smiled uneasily at him, trying to calm him down.

"He's okay. Looks like he just collapsed from exhaustion and stress. He has a temperature but he should be okay after he rests for a while…" he spoke softly, sounding a little uncertain. Al closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath again. He felt a weight lift off his chest hearing Matt's words and couldn't help as he grinned sheepishly at him. Though he didn't show it often he had huge amount of respect for his brother, he knew he could always trust what he said and go to him for help or advice. Often just hearing his soft-spoken voice or seeing him smile was enough to put him at ease and give him more confidence with himself.

"That's good… he's okay. Everything's fine. Okay… now, lets head back, I don't wanna hang around here anymore, and I think we should really get him home." Al was a little shaken, but was soon gaining his normal cheerful self back. He felt a lot safer and more secure now they were away from the circus and that his brother was with him. He smiled, looking down at its now relaxed face he gently he moved some of the untidy hair out of its eyes, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb over its closed eyelid, it looked completely helpless and Al felt a serge of protectivness rise in him. With a soft grunt he stood and heaved up the unconscious fox guy with him so that he was holding onto it bridal style. It was reasonably light and Al was unnaturally strong anyway so he was able to carry it with ease. Shifting it slightly and tightening his hold on it protectively, he set off with a grin in the direction of his apartment, Matt followed by his side quietly for a moment before speaking up softly, almost whispering.

"Al, u-uh, shouldn't we just get a taxi, eh? ..Its dark and, well, we probably look pretty strange walking around in the middle of the night carrying… him…" he trailed off unsure. He didn't really know why but he felt nervous walking around this late, it didn't feel like anyone was watching or following them or anything like that but after the scary encounter they'd just had, he was scared and feeling quite edgy. The night was cold and kind of damp from the rain they'd had earlier in the day and the stars were all hidden by a thick grey blanket of cloud making everything seem darker and more depressing than it actually was. It was also amazingly quiet for a city. Everything was still and empty and their footsteps could be heard clearly, echoing down the deserted street. It could almost be peaceful in a way. Matt shivered, pulling his red hoodie closer to himself and crossing his arms over his chest as a cold breeze ran by them picking up his hair and moving it into his face.

Al frowned, humming quietly in thought at his question before answering.

"...Well, I dunno, like wouldn't it be kind of weird if we just got into a taxi, carrying a guy with… uh, animal legs, and a tail, and stuff…" he had no idea how they would explain this to someone. The fox guy's scruffy green t-shirt and small shorts didn't help at all in hiding what he was. Al bit his lip in concern, now realising that it was probably freezing and it was already sick, he didn't want it to get any sicker than it was. Matt glancing sideways at him noticed his brothers worry. Lightly he put a hand on his arm.

"Hey, Al, do you want to use my hoodie, its pretty warm and you can use it as a blanket for him…" he offered kindly. Though the thing had scared him half to death when he had first met it, after observing the whole ordeal from the side-lines his respect and sympathy had grown for it, it honestly wasn't as scary as it looked. He'd also noticed that his brother had seemed to have taken quite a liking to it, and vice-versa. Matt was also naturally a generous person so he instinctively wanted to help. Alfred smiled at him in gratitude, but shook his head.

"Nah, its okay Mattie, I'll use my own jacket, I just didn't think to use it before, haha! An amazing hero like me can't let his awesome little brother catch a cold now, can he?" he laughed grinning widely, proud of himself for thinking of using his jacket. Matt half-smiled half-pouted at him, happy for the compliment but a little peeved at being treated like he was weaker than his brother (even if it was true to some extent).

"Hey, mind if you hold him a sec, while I get my jacket off?"

"Uh, y-yeah, sure…" before he knew what was happening Matt had the thing placed carefully into his arms, he struggled a bit, trying not to let the limp body slip out of his grasp and to the floor. It was smaller than him, but not by much. He watched quietly as his brother was shrugging off his jacket when he felt it stir slightly and twitch. Panicking a bit he looked down at it worriedly, but it didn't move again. He'd admitted to himself that it wasn't as scary as it looked, but that still didn't mean he wanted it waking up in his arms. After all he didn't know anything about it and he was still uncertain, not fully trusting it yet. Luckily Al stepped in quickly and in a nearly loving way he wrapped his jacket around it like a blanket before taking it back into his own arms. The jacket was very large compared to it and covered nearly the whole body of the thing, with just its head and the bottom of its feet sticking out.

"There, that should feel better for him… lets get back quickly though, if we take that short-cut through the park, we should get back a little quicker." Al said cheerfully and headed off again, his pace a little quicker this time. Matt nodded and followed, staying close to his side the whole way back. The park was close to a grave yard and he wasn't keen on going there even in the day, let alone at night, but he reasoned it would be faster that way and they would be less likely to run into people.

They got back to the apartment complex safely and with no trouble, though by the time they entered Matt was shaky looking quite ruffled. They both lived on the top floor, Al's apartment next door to Matt's. Their father was the head owner of an expensive foreign car company and because of his obsession with his work he was rarely home and almost never saw his son's, so trying to be the loving father he was he gave them a lot of money, trying to buy their affection and at the same time buying them there own apartments and cars too so they could move out of his house. This meant they were both pretty well off and neither of them actually needed a job to get by (though they both ended up doing part-time jobs between college courses and such to pass spare time and to feel useful). Being honest neither of them liked there father at all. He was selfish and greedy and thought money was the equivalent of love. They considered themselves to be the only real family they had and they helped and relied on each other to get through life.

There was a bit of an awkward moment in the elevator on the way to the top floor when a slightly drunk looking couple entered in with them. Both groups just stared at each other silently for a while. Al grinned at them and randomly gave them a thumbs up, they didn't respond and continued to stare until they finally reached their floor and stumbled out. Matt sighed, a bit embarrassed as the doors closed again taking them up to the top floor. They walked quietly down the hall, stopping finally at Al's door.

"So, uh, Mattie, did you wanna stay at mine tonight?"

"No, that's all right, I'll be fine." Matt smiled softly at him, turning to go to his own door.

"Wait, are you sure? I mean it's not like I'm scared of being alone or nothing! but, will you be, you know, okay, by yourself?"

"Gilbert came to stay over remember? Just before we left for the circus, he said he'd play on the Xbox while he waited for me to get back… he's probably asleep by now though…" he replied whispering, wincing as he looked at the time on his watch.

"Oh yeah… well goodnight then."

"Goodnight, I'll come and see you in the morning." Matt said, Al smiled and waved at him as he fished for his keys in his jean pockets. Matt waved gently back headed to his door, opening it quietly. Before he had the chance to close it though, he grimaced hearing the overly loud voice of his brother shouting down the hall.

"And Mattie! don't let that stupid German asshole try and molest you this time or I'll shov-" Matt slammed the door, feeling his cheeks burn. He really wished Al would at least not shout out his name, the poor neighbours probably knew enough about his privet life because of his brother by now.

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- ending the chapter there, tried to make it a little longer this time (sorry if I dragged it out too much though). Thankyou so much for reading and for the nice reviews! ^^


	6. Chapter 6

Humming quietly to himself Al stumbled clumsily into his apartment, closing the door behind him with his foot. The place was a bit of a mess, with rubbish and empty plates and such, randomly scattered around. His apartment was about medium sized with light pale blue walls and (what used to be) cream coloured carpet and a few different (half-dead) plants and pictures dotted around. It had a reasonably clean looking kitchen to the right side of the door which melded into the main room. The main area consisted of a large black couch (with blue cushions), a wide-screen T.V (complete with dvd player, various gaming consoles and what-not) and two other doors leading to different bedrooms (each with own bathrooms and showers). In short it looked extremely ordinary, but had a comfortable, almost homely feel to it.

After pausing a moment he carried the thing into the guest bedroom next to his. This was by far the tidiest and emptiest room in the apartment… probably because it was never used. Although he had a lot of 'friends' he wasn't particularly close with any of them, well, that and most of them could only put up with his supposedly 'annoying', 'over-confident' and 'ego-centric' personality. Al snorted lightly at the thought. He wasn't that bad it was just them who were too… something, he couldn't think of a word to call them really. They were just them.

Gently he placed it on top of the bed covers. He paused again, looking at it for a minute. The clothes it was wearing looked dirty and uncomfortable… he should change them for it, like the amazing hero he was. Grinning and nodding to himself, he headed into his own room and dug out the smallest pair of pyjamas he had, hoping they wouldn't be too big on it. Walking back in he quickly set to changing it into the pyjamas. The grin soon left his face though when he finally managed to pull off its t-shirt. On its chest, right over the place where its heart should be, was a large and sore looking purple-green bruise and leaning closer he could see a thin silvery scar that ran across the left side of its neck. Also now that it was in better light and Al had the opportunity to stop and take in its appearance, he could make out lots of other smaller bruises and half healed cuts covered its body, including its face. Al gritted his teeth slightly, anger bubbling up at whoever had done this, he had a strong suspicion that it was that Scottish man though. Hastily he got out his first aid kit and tended to its wounds. Luckily most of them were almost healed anyway and just needed cleaning, so it didn't take long. Frowning when he noticed a deeper, still bleeding cut on the inside of its arm, he carefully began tying a bandage around it, but at the same time felt his stomach drop. Something about this cut was different than the others and it made him uneasy, very similar, nearly healed cuts and older looking scars also surround it. Quickly he pushed away the negative thoughts rising in his mind and once finished, began putting on the pyjamas.

Smiling softly when he was finished, he pulled the covers up around it and tucked it in. And after leaving the room for a minute he returned with a damp wash-cloth and a glass of water. Placing the water on the night stand he sat on the floor next to it, with his arms resting on edge of the bed. Gently moving the scruffy hair out of the way, he pressed the cold cloth on its forehead. It sighed contently in its sleep, moving its head to the side and nuzzling into the pillow, making Al grin again and ruffle its hair lovingly. It really did look cute right now, all defenceless like that and wearing his clothes.

After a while of watching it Al yawned widely and began to rub his eyes. He was exhausted and seriously needed to sleep, so giving it one last look he quietly stood up and left the room, making sure to leave the doors in both the guest room and his room half way. Just in case it woke in the night and called out for him… or in case it might not know how to open doors and would panic thinking it was trapped, he didn't know and wanted to be safe just in case. After changing himself and carelessly shoving some junk off his bed and onto the floor, he collapsed heavily onto it, snuggling under the thick covers and falling deeply asleep almost instantly.

The night passed by quietly and extremely still, and only when the late morning light was shining brightly into the apartment did something begin to stir. The thing opened its eyes slowly, blinking a few times at the unfamiliar ceiling. Groggily it rubbed its eyes, trying to clear its blurred vision and make sense of where it was. It was laying in something soft and warm and it was tempted to just roll over and go back to sleep, but was too curious to do so. After coming out of its daze more, it sat up, putting a hand on it head feeling a little bit dizzy and looked around the room. Distantly it remembered a human called 'Alfred' had spoken to it. He was really kind and had helped it out of the cage… He had punched Scott and rescued it… then he'd ran, pulling it with him… he'd said he was a hero, and was bringing it to his home…

Its eyebrows furrowed together trying to concentrate, but it was getting harder and harder to remember… vaguely the last thing it could picture was Alfred holding it in his arms and looking scared… it'd tried to ask him what was wrong… but then its memory faded to nothingness. It felt a blush rise to its cheeks remembering the strong arms holding it and how close his face had been, but looking around more it couldn't see him anywhere. Feeling a drop of fear start to gather in its gut, it stood up from the bed and staggered weakly out of the room. It wanted Alfred. It needed to find him, he would make everything okay. That's what he'd said wasn't it? Frantically looking around the large messy area in front of it, it didn't see him anywhere, it was empty. With the drop of fear growing, it also felt a bitter sadness swell in its chest. Its eyes turned glassy with hidden tears. What if he'd just abandoned it alone here? He'd 'rescued' it now right? so maybe he just left… after all he'd done his 'hero' job, they weren't 'friends' or anything, he didn't have any reason to stay with it… and why would he have stayed with it anyway? It was just a worthless, and useless, and ugly, pathetic… _thing_.….. Who would ever want to bother with it…

The pent up ears finally over-flowed and it quickly brought its hand and paw to it mouth, trying to stop the series of choked sobs that were from escaping its throat. Sure, it didn't want to be alone anymore, but crying wasn't going to help anything was it? Desperately rubbing at its eyes it wiped away the tears roughly and tried to calm down its jittery breathing. It was angry with itself now, it was its own damn fault for getting its hopes up like that anyway and it was pathetic and stupid for crying like that. Closing its eyes and taking a deep steadying breath, it focused itself and started to think about what to do now.

Alfred had been awake for a few minutes now, trying to will himself to get up. Glancing at his alarm clock it read 11:57am… he'd over-slept way too long, he'd meant to get up early to check on his room-mate, but his body was tired and achy from the night before. Everything in the apartment was quiet though and he couldn't sense any movement so he'd guessed the guy was still asleep. Moaning lightly as stretched out his back and arms, he smiled sleepily, rolling himself over so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. After feeling around blindly for his glasses and slipping them on his face, he was just about to stand up when he froze. He heard a noise outside his door. Listening intently he heard it again. It sounded like muffled crying. He felt guilt hit him, and worriedly stumbled out the door, still a bit groggy. The thing was standing in the main room with its back to him and looked like it was rubbing its face. Al approached it carefully, and spoke gently not wanting to startle it.

"…Hey, what's wrong? Do you feel not well?" The thing jumped and spun around quickly. Its expression held a weird mix between surprise, anger and shame, its eyes looked slightly damp and bloodshot. It didn't answer him, just stared at him with its mouth open, looking kind of like a deer caught in headlights, like it had been caught off guard. Warily, it took a few steps backing away from him, its ears pinned back and looking uneasy. Al frowned at this and carefully took a few steps towards it. He smiled at it and raised his right hand to show submission and that he was harmless. He still kept his quiet and gentle, not wanting it to bolt.

"Its okay… its me, remember? Alfred? …are you alright? Why were you crying?" it stopped backing away and Al was able to get close to it, its face was unreadable now. When it spoke it tried to keep its voice natural, but it still came out sounding upset.

"…I t-thought you'd gone…" it seemed to try and say something more, but couldn't get the words out. Al felt guilty for not making sure he was there when it woke, but he smiled softly at it, carefully reaching out and ruffling its hair before breaking into a grin.

"Why would I do that? I'm not gonna just leave you, I like you remember so you're kinda stuck with me, unless, well, _you_ wanted to leave me… but, anyway, if you want that is, this is now your new home." he said laughing cheerfully hoping to reassure it, though he felt a pang of pity for it thinking he'd leave like that. It looked completely shocked for a second, but soon managed to gather itself together and actually grinned back at him, chuckling oddly and tilting its head to one side. It remembered now that this one really was generally nice and he didn't seem the type to even be able to lie or be to-faced, and even though they'd barley met, after all he'd done for it, it already trusted him. It put its paw on Al's arm gently, amusement clear in its voice. Its mood seemed to have completely changed from a minute ago.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome!" Al grinned, feeling slightly giddy from happiness that he had a new friend and a roommate. Even though Matt lived next door, he had Gilbert and Al didn't like getting in the way of them too much, so often he got lonely on his own. But now he finally had… someone. That made him realise something.

"Oh, so you already know my name, what's yours?" he asked interested. It hesitated a bit before replying, for some reason sounding unsure.

"My names Arthur."

"ohh cool, nice to meet you Artie!" he said holding out his hand for a handshake. Its eyebrow twitched a bit and it eyed his hand slightly before shaking it.

"I said Arthur. Not 'Artie'." Al nodded but couldn't help snickering loudly at how he looked pouting with those large eyebrows. Arthur glared back at him, but only succeeded in making him snicker more.

"And what's so funny?" he growled trying to sound intimidating.

"Nothing! Nothing."

"Its not nothing, what is it?"

"Nothing, really, I just thought you looked cute pouting like that is all, so, hey are you hungry? I need to go shopping but I should be able to find us some breakfast!" Al said absentmindedly, cheerfully pulling Arthur over to the kitchen and completely missing how red his face had turned. No-one had ever called him 'cute' before (they usually made fun of him for being ugly or his eyebrows) and he didn't know how to handle it. He held his breath willing himself to calm down and hoped to hell his face didn't look as red as it felt. Thankfully Al was too busy with his face buried in the fridge to notice him.

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- ending the chapter there, (not the end of story yet though) Thank you so much for reading! (sorry for bad grammar/spelling and OOCness etc) ^^


	7. Chapter 7

Chap.7 -Thank you for reading! To Alphine: sorry, I forgot about there ages(thanks for reminding), they'd be around 19/20ish for Al and Matt and about 23/24ish for Arthur, I think. Thank you so much for the review! ^^

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After a bit of rummaging in the fridge Al emerged with a grin and a half-empty carton of eggs. He placed them on the side and causally pulled out carton of orange juice before closing the fridge door and turning to Arthur who was sitting quietly on a stool by the counter. He noted his cheeks looked a little pink but didn't think much about it, guessing it was because he was still a bit ill.

"So Arthur, what d'you think of scrambled eggs for breakfast?" he asked cheerfully, having no clue what types of food the other liked. Arthur just blinked a few times before smiling at him, but didn't say anything. Al took that as a 'yes' and set about making them, humming some random tune as he went. He wasn't a great cook, but he was pretty reasonable, well, good enough for it to taste okay anyway. Arthur watched him with silent interest, he knew a little about cooking but from the few times he'd tried it, it hadn't ended amazingly well. Alfred seemed to be able to do it though. He didn't cut himself once, there was no smoke or explosions and the food hadn't even turned black yet. He watched, kind of confused, wondering how he did it. Al finished up cooking pretty quickly and promptly set a plate and glass of orange juice in front of Arthur before taking a seat opposite him.

"Sorry it's not the best, but we'll be able to buy some better stuff later." Al grinned, his mouth already full of food. Arthur just nodded in response before cautiously taking a bite himself. Less than a minute after that his plate was completely empty, somehow managing to finish even before Alfred and with even less manners. Al laughed, watching him lick at his paw and lips and wipe his face with his sleeve, trying to clean the mess off him as best he could.

"I take it, you liked it then?" he laughed, standing up and taking both there plates, dumping them thoughtlessly into the sink. Arthur grinned back, finishing his drink quickly before answering.

"Yes, thank you. It was very nice." he said contentedly and stood up also, brushing himself down. He then froze suddenly, for the first time noticing that he was somehow in different clothing. Al noticing his confusion and surprise, put a hand on his shoulder. His voice sounding happy and slightly amused.

"When I brought you back here, you're clothes were kinda torn, and like, really dirty, so I gave you a pair of my pyjamas… sorry if they don't fit well, but we'll get you your own clothes later… until then your kinda stuck with mine." Al smiled and Arthur felt a blush quickly rising to his cheeks again. Turning his face so Al couldn't see, he spoke up quietly, trying to sound steady but he was feeling choked up at how kind Al was being to him.

"…Thank you, but you really don't need to do tha-"

"It's fine! Honestly, this is my choice, I wanna help okay? You don't need to worry cause its no problem, I mean, really, its not, okay?" Al cut him off quickly, seeing where Arthur was going. Arthur took a breath and after a second smiled back, feeling himself relax and comforted at his words. Al didn't wait for anymore of a response.

"Good! That's settled then. Now, how about we get changed? I'm sure I've got something that'll fit you and then we can go shopping for stuff!" Al grinned widely. Arthur grinned back, this human really was strange. Arthur's head tilted to the side as noticed something then, now that he was closer to Al's face he could make out a reddish cut going from his cheek to the corner of his mouth. He felt a small wave of hatred run through him making his eye twitch and causing him to bristle slightly, remembering that Scott had done that to him. Without realising it and acting on instinct he stepped close and took a hold of Al's arm and resting his paw on Al's opposite shoulder for balance, he leaned up higher, licking at the cut gently, wanting to soothe it. Al was surprised to say the least, but somehow not as much as the other it seemed. Arthur stood frozen in shock, his mouth open and looking almost horrified at what he'd just done. Al kept himself still, he could feel Arthur's warm breath tickling against his cheek and he tried suppress a sudden shudder that ran up his spine as his stomach fluttered oddly. Arthur flinched, quickly letting go and stepping back, his heart was pounding almost painfully against his ribs and he hurriedly looked at the floor, fidgeting nervously.

"I'm s-so sorry, I didn't m-mean to do that I-" He stuttered a bit, sounding extremely embarrassed. Al just laughed, waving his hand and cutting him off.

"Hey, don't worry about it! Haha it really wasn-" a loud series of knocks at the door interrupted him, at the same time making Arthur twitch quite badly. Still chuckling at Arthur's reaction, Al called out, though he was almost certain he knew who it was.

"Yeah, who is it?"

"The awesome me! Who else would it be you moron!" an obnoxious and overconfident voice yelled through the door. Al rolled his eyes, snorting. He was about to tell him to get lost but he could also make out the muffled voice of his brother outside the door, it sounded kind of like he was telling Gilbert off but it was to quiet to make out the words. He paused, not sure what to do. He wanted to let Matt in, but that would mean he'd also have to let that bastard in too…

"Oy! Open the fucking door already!" Gil yelled, banging on the door some more. He wasn't know as the most patient person in the world. Sighing, Al gave a still blushing Arthur another smile for reassurance, he was looking rather edgy and biting his lip, he didn't seem to like the sound of person on the other side of the door. Irritated, Al walked purposely slowly to the door before opening it.

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- really really sorry for the short/boring chapter, but im too tired to make it any longer now so ill try an add another chap later. (sorry for spelling/grammar/OOCness etc) . Thank you so much for reading! ^^


	8. Chapter 8

As soon as the door was unlocked Gil pushed his way in, a cocky grin plastered on his face. Close behind Matt followed, entering more tentatively, glaring quietly at Gil before looking apologetically at Al. Matt was the first to speak up.

"Sorry Al, I said I would visit in the morning but, well, I kind of over-slept…" he trailed off politely, smiling sheepishly. Al smiled back, not minding, he'd sort of forgotten he was going to come over anyway. Gil decided to choose this moment to but in.

"Yeah, so where's this werewolf you guys found? I gotta see it!" he said grinning toothily, ruby red eyes searching around the room. Matt sent him another mildly irritated look about to say something but his brother got to it first.

"His name is Arthur. And he's not a werewolf." Al replied coolly, not hiding the annoyance in his voice. He wasn't sure if it was just this guy's general attitude, or the fact he felt like he'd taken his brother away from him in some sense, but Gilbert always managed to piss him off somehow. Glancing behind him to where Arthur had been standing before, he didn't see him. Frowning he took a quick look around the whole room but didn't see any sign of him anywhere. Curiously he called out for him, a little worried he'd been scared away.

"…. Arthur?" at his voice a pair of emerald eyes cautiously peered out from behind the back of the couch. Quickly noticing this Gil strode confidently over to where he was, his impish grin growing even wider as he went.

"Ha! Wow… so its really true. This is so awesome!" he exclaimed excitedly, leaning close over the couch to him for a more detailed look at him. Arthur tensed and leaned back away from him, his teeth clenched and his ears pinned back defensively. Gil eyed him up and down with interest, looking overconfident and cocky, almost like he was purposely trying to egg him on. Sensing Arthur's discomfort he playfully leaned a little closer, red eyes boring into him and chuckling darkly when he was growled at in return. Arthur was feeling really unsure about this guy and was getting a little peeved now that he wouldn't just back away already. Irritated, he bit out his words, sounding weirdly snobbish for his scruffy appearance.

"You know, it's rude to stare at people you've only just met." at his words a look of surprise flashed across Gil's face, before he snorted suddenly and broke out laughing loudly.

"Hahaha! Oh my god, it can actually talk! Haha but-but what the hell's wrong with its accent!" Gil gasped between laughs. Arthur looked about ready to punch him, but at this point Al stepped in and quickly pulled Gilbert away, both from his own annoyance and noticing Arthur's dangerous expression. Gil stumbled back a bit from the force, still giggling and Matt gave him a soft punch on his arm as a warning and began saying something to him quietly. Sighing, Al ignored them and turning to Arthur he put a hand on his shoulder, trying to ease him up a bit.

"Hey, don't worry about him, he's just an idiot, best thing to do is just ignore him." Al said lightly and giving him his own grin. Arthur wrinkled his noise slightly in distaste, but still smiled back and letting himself relax again. This Gilbert guy seemed annoying, but he could tell he wasn't seriously dangerous and didn't have any bad intentions, so he didn't have to worry about him. Plus, just watching him interact with Matt, he could tell he wasn't a bad person as his disposition had softened considerably and his eyes actually looked oddly caring. Seemed Matt fully trusted him too. After a pause stretching and yawning slightly, Arthur got off of the couch, feeling a little tired and stood quietly close by Al's side, his arms crossed. At his movement Gil eyed him again, giving him a smirk before talking to him.

"Hey, I'm sorry for my rudeness before, I didn't realise stuff is all and my awesome self got carried away. It's nice to meet you Arthur." amusement filed his voice, but he still managed to sound polite yet taunting at the same time. Arthur met his gaze but didn't say anything, he was almost certain he'd only said that because Matt had guilted him into doing so. After a glance to his watch, Matt was the one to break the awkward pause between the two, speaking to Al.

"…So, um, me and Gil are going… somewhere now, but what's happening with you?" he asked tentatively, feeling a little rude for leaving so abruptly. He and Gil had already made plans for today, but in the morning when he'd mentioned about what'd happened the night before to Gil, he had immediately wanted to check it out and had left for Al's place before Matt could explain everything fully, which was pretty understandable considering it was him. But since they'd also over-slept it also meant they only had a short time to visit before they had to leave or they'd miss their train.

"Oh, well I was gonna take Artie and we were gonna walk around town and go out shopping for clothes and food and stuff…" Al said cheerfully, liking the idea. Matt looked concerned though.

"Um, yeah, Al, are you sure that's a good idea eh? Cause you know, the circus is still in town until it leaves tomorrow, and, well it'd be really bad if you ran into that man again… also I think it'd probably be better for Arthur to get a little more rest before walking around, he still looks kinda pale…. That being said you'd probably draw a lot of attention, walking around looking like that I mean…" Matt trailed off, feeling kind of bad but he was concerned for his brothers safety. Al frowned as the information sunk in. He had a point. After humming for a moment in thought he pushed his glasses up and replied.

"…I didn't think of that… well then, I guess we'll stay in today, if that's okay with you Artie?" he grinned down at Arthur who only grunted in response but didn't look bothered. In truth he was still feeling a little weak and tired, and also he was extremely wary of going outside if Scott was still about, so staying in sounded good to him. Taking the grunt as a yes, Al waved his brother and Gil out of the apartment. As they walked out the door, Matt turned to Al giving him a small smile and a 'see you later' before blushing when Gil wrapped an arm around his waist, grinning mischievously and led them away down the hallway. Al let out a sigh of relief as he shut the door.

They day passed by quickly. Arthur had managed to convince Al to clean up the apartment and as they cleaned it together they had talked almost non-stop. Al shared many interesting and funny story's from when he was younger, varying form adventures with his brother to times he'd apparently saved or helped people, which made Arthur smile a lot. He also talked about the many kinds of stuff he liked and didn't like, such as music, food, games, movies to colours, weather, beliefs, which superhero's would win in a fight etc… and by the end Arthur had learnt a lot more about him and his personality, he was extremely glad for it… along with lots of other useless and unimportant information, but it was amusing none the less. He enjoyed talking with Al and had laughed at quite a lot of his stories and rants.

Though when it came to talking about himself he kept it fairly quiet, feeling a little shy (though he'd never admit it) about opening up to him. Even so, he still felt a weight lift off his chest at finally being able to talk to someone about stuff. He told Al about how he'd never had a mother or father from what he could remember, his earliest memory's being of walking around alone in some woods. How at some point in time a very old lady (who had practiced a lot of witchcraft and had lived alone in a small hut in the middle of the woods) had taken him in and looked after him, even with his strange appearance. He told him a few stories about the times he'd meet with, and often argued with, an annoying and perverted French ghost who wandered around the woods late at night in search of some woman 'Jeanne' (though he didn't admit that he'd actually enjoyed his company and the many pointless conversations/arguments they'd had together). He told him how he used to play games with the little fairies that lived in the dead tree trunks and how his favourite (Faylinn, she always wore a green dress and had long wavy chestnut hair) used to bring him little trinkets and secretly hide flowers in his hair for him to find later. He'd also told him briefly about how he'd met Scott one day randomly and that he'd disappeared, coming back a few years later and taking him by force, but he kept the details short and quick that involved Scott, obviously not wanting to think to much about it.

Al had listened to him intently with interest and Arthur was grateful to him… even if he wouldn't believe him about the fairies, no matter what he said. After the cleaning was mostly finished (well, was deemed 'good enough') and Al had cooked them some food, they both sat down heavily next to each other on the couch with one of Al's horror movies. Arthur had found in fairly interesting, though he wasn't particularly scared of the ghosts that popped up (for obvious reasons) but he did find it entertaining how the 'amazing hero' Alfred was shaking by his side, whimpering and desperately clutching a pillow to his chest through out the film. Arthur couldn't help but snicker a bit when he felt Al completely freeze and hold his breath at one point in the movie where the scene had gone dark and creepy music had started playing in the background, signalling something was going to jump out. He turned to him, about to ask him if he wanted to turn it off when Al suddenly screamed loudly and lunged, grabbing onto Arthur tightly and hiding behind him, the shock from the unexpected scream and sudden contact making Arthur also shriek in surprise, which in turn set off Al again, gripping tighter around Arthur's waist and muffling a scream into his back. After a few silent moments that followed of Al clinging for his life and Arthur trying start his heart again, the pair slowly managed to calm down. Carefully Al pulled away and turned off the T.V, taking a deep breath and laughing, a little embarrassed for actually screaming. Though he felt better seeing how scared Arthur looked too, guessing that it was the movie that'd scared him.

"Haha wow, that was a pretty scary move, huh?" he laughed, running a hand through his hair. Arthur gave him a slightly odd look, but grinned in return anyway.

"Yeah, it was…" a wide yawn stopping his sentence. It wasn't very late but Al could tell Arthur was pretty tired so he stood up stretching and holding his hand out to help him up. Arthur took it gratefully and let himself be pulled up, making Al smile and ruffle his hair.

"So you wanna go to bed now?" he asked softly. Arthur swatted his hand from his head playfully and nodded, rubbing his eyes. Al smiled again, resisting the urge to hug him and walked him to his room before giving him a cheerful 'goodnight' and quickly ruffling his hair again and heading to his own room. Arthur snorted in mild annoyance, trying in vain to flatten his hair again as he slipped under the covers. They had both stayed in pyjamas so he'd didn't need to change. After shifting a few times to get comfortable, he snuggled under the warm blanket and fell asleep quickly, but he didn't get much peace before he started dreaming, wincing and twitching in his sleep. The unnoticed stress from the recent events causing an old memory to wake and rise up from the back of his mind.

_A strange little fox-looking boy walked through the darkening woods, he was wearing an old patched-up green cloak and carrying a small brown rabbit preciously in his arms. He was alone and walked aimlessly around for a while, gently talking now and again to the rabbit about random things. He got no verbal response from it except its large brown eyes blinking back trustfully at him. He smiled petting it soft fur and held it closer to himself for comfort. He'd found the rabbit half-dead and all alone one night on a pathway when it was still very small, and since then he'd taken care of it. It had bitten him at first, leaving a scar on his hand, but he eventually became friends with it and soon it had began to follow him everywhere, like he was its mother._

_It was a frosty night and the wind howled through the bare tree branches, shaking them and making them creak and moan moodily. After a while he stopped walking, sitting on a large rock and sniffled, shivering he watched as his breath formed cold clouds in front of his eyes. He wanted to go inside the warmer hut but the old lady was practicing some sort of 'summoning spell' and said he should stay away for the next few hours. He sneezed suddenly, making the rabbit twitch in his arms. Rubbing his nose on his arm and giggling he stroked its head lovingly, murmuring a few words of apology to it. He stayed there for a while looking up at the thousands of white stars that could now be seen in the crisp night sky. He could hear owls calling out to each other and many small rustlings around him and feel the rabbit curling up, pressing into his stomach for warmth. It was peaceful._

_An hour had passed by in near silence, when he felt a chill run down his neck. It wasn't from the cold. Sniffing again and glancing around with his eyebrows furrowed, he didn't see anything. The rabbit woke up, sitting up on its hind legs alert now, with its ears standing straight and swivelling around in search of something. The boy gazed anxiously in the direction where the rabbit was staring, uneasiness growing inside of him. It was dark and he still couldn't see anything, so carefully he called out, wary of being too loud._

_"… Francis? …. Is that you? Cause if it is, its not bloody funny…." he trailed off, swallowing. A dark chuckle came from the direction he was talking to. It defiantly wasn't the frog. A few twigs snapped as a pair of yellow dots flashed once, followed by a red headed boy who emerged, a few years older than him he looked. He walked slowly like a predator stalking its prey up to the boy, who had tensed and held the rabbit tighter, shielding in form the strange guy. Not liking the look on his face, the boy stood up and ground out his words, his tail swishing defensively._

_"What do you want?" he barked harshly, backing away. The red-headed guy just smiled kingly at him, stopping a short distance away before speaking._

_"My, what a cute we-rabbit ya got boy, what's 'es name?" his accent was thick and had a cruel edge to it. The boy narrowed his eyes slightly, he didn't like him but he could tell there was something off about this guy and really didn't want to make him angry. He answered nervously._

_"His names Fiver… sorry but I need to go now-"_

_"Ahh Fiver, I see, an what's ye name, boy?" the guy cut him off, walking closer to him, his eyes never blinking or leaving the boy once._

_"My names Arthur…" he said quietly, a wave of panic rolling through him as he felt himself back into a tree, trapped. The guy chuckled at him, a sadistic glint in his eyes._

_"Arthur, aye?… well little Arthur. My name is Scott." his smile turned slowly into a grin as he closed in on him. Arthur could feel the rabbits breathing and its heart beating frantically against his wrist as Scott came closer. Taking in a breath and building up his courage, he was about to make a kick at Scott's shin and make a run for it when he was suddenly tackled into the cold ground, the rabbit flying from his arms from the impact. Scott laughed dementedly, straddling Arthur and pinning him down with his weight._

_"Did ye think ya could git away from me just like that, little Arthur?… just running away won't work will et? Ya know if ye wanna get away yar gonna 'ave to kill me. That's how things work, aye?" Scott hissed into his ear and chuckled, slowly pulling out a blade. Arthur's eyes widened in fear at the blade and he struggled more trying to push him away. Scott ignored him, flipping the blade a few times around his finger, watching as the moonlight reflected off of it in sharp flashes. Leaning his head to one side he focused his eyes on Arthur's but instead of turning the blade on him, he gently took a hold of Arthur's human hand and pushed the hilt of the blade into it, closing the boys fingers around it so that he was holding it. Arthur looked up at him in confusion, his breathing laboured from struggling and from the guys weight pushing the air out of his lungs. Scott didn't say anything, quietly he lifted the boys hand up to his own throat, pressing the blade lightly against the life vein in the side of his neck. He laughed again at Arthur's confusion and shock, and spoke to him in a soft yet crazed voice._

_"Well Arthur? Just push et a little more.." he sneered, putting force against the boys hand himself and causing blood to travel slickly down the blade and fall in warm little drop's onto Arthur's face. Arthur gasped and tried to pull his hand away, scrunching tightly his eyes as he struggled, trying to kick and scratch at him, wanting to escape. Scott looked down at him annoyed, his grin vanishing and being replaced with a scowl. He spoke through gritted teeth, his voice full of frustration and spite._

_"What's the matter? I'm not good enough to kill, aye?…. Or are ye just too cowardly to do et? Heh, ye know, if ya not gonna kill me, ye'll be the one who's dead." he spat out his words, this time bringing the now bloodied knife down to Arthur's neck and sliding it gently along the side, just enough to cause the skin to slit and blood to flow out, but not enough to kill. Arthur gasped in pain and fear, whimpering and struggling, breathing heavily, his heart feeling close to exploding. Scott laughed as he began to press down harder, enjoying the boys prolonged fear, when hi winced and hissed suddenly, dropping the blade. The rabbit had bit him hard on his hand, its sharp little teeth piercing through his flesh, right down to his bone. Harshly and angrily Scott flicked his hand causing the rabbit to fly off, landing on its back and bouncing off the ground. Wobbly it got back up and dragged itself by Arthur's head, trembling with fear but refusing to leave its friends side._

_"Fiver… r-run…" Arthur stuttered in panic, the fear and blood loss making his voice weak. The rabbit didn't budge, but nuzzled into his hair. Arthur felt tears brimming his eyes, terrified for Fiver's sake. Scott snorted in disgust and cruelly grabbed the rabbit by its ears, holding it off the ground, causing it to squeal. Arthur struggled desperately now, hatred and stress flooded him as he snarled dangerously, trying to draw Scott's attention to himself instead of Fiver, but he felt his stomach drop sickeningly when Scott smiled at him, an evil glint in his eyes. Scott's voice was even and calm when he spoke, sounding almost playful._

_"Well, it seems little we-Fiver 'ere needs to learn some… respect, wouldn't ye say Arthur?" he giggled manically picking up the blade and poising it towards the rabbit. Arthur felt his blood run cold, desperately clawing at his legs and trying to bite him with all he had._

_"No, s-stop, p-please… don't, just… d-don't pleas-e…" was all Arthur could get out between choked sobs, fumbling over his words as his mind clouded in panic. Scott laughed crazily again and licked his lips as he watched as tears ran down Arthur's cheeks. Without warning he lifted the blade and drove it quickly and violently into the rabbits eye. Fiver squealed loudly in pain, the sound echoing around the woodland and thrashed about madly. Arthur felt his heart clench, frozen. Smirking as twisted it and pulled the blade out Scott then cut sharply down its stomach, causing thick blood to flow out of the diagonal line and fall again onto Arthur's face, mixing with Scott's and his own blood. By now Arthur was hyperventilating, looking about to pass out. Scott snorted at the state he was in over a rabbit, and quickly snapped its neck, ending its life before dropping it carelessly next to the left side of Arthur's head. Arthur didn't even respond this time, he just stared emptily ahead of him, white faced and eyes half open. Scott smirked before getting off of him, he stood up, wiping some blood off his hands as he did and looked down his nose at the boy on the ground. He spoke normally, only a tint of malice showing in his voice._

_"Ye know, I feel sorry for that rabbit, poor thing. It risked its life for yeh, an what did et get in return? Nothing. Poor little Fiver… abandoned by its only friend, who didn't even help him. And ye know Arthur if yer'd killed me at the start, he'd still be alive. It's all your fault 'es dead… you know that though don't ya? Ye killed him. Cruel bastard. No wonder e abandoned ye an died…" Scott babbled, sounding distant and lost in thought, his voice got quieter and quieter as he walked slowly away, fading into the darkness of the woods, leaving Arthur broken and alone on the frosted floor, bright red blood covered his face and the moonlight shone, sparkling and reflecting off the deep blood that pooled thickly around his neck and head. It looked almost pretty in a twisted way._

_After a while. After the situation and Scott's words finally sunk in and his stunned daze had lifted slightly, he carefully turned his head to his left, wincing at the sharp sting in his neck. He was met instantly with a pair dulled brown eyes, one open, the other bloodied and gorged out, as the rabbit stared accusingly back at him in death._

Arthur screamed, shooting up in bed, shaking and his heart pounding in his ears. He crouched over, hands pulling harshly at his hair, hyperventilating. Slowly, very slowly, his breathing slowed down, but he stayed in that position for almost half an hour, not daring to move. He muffled chocked sobs that forced their way out of him and his heart ached dully but he eventually managed to pull himself together. Looking around the room, he twitched, giggling a little dementedly for some reason. It was dark and he was alone. He wanted Alfred. He needed to see him, needed to make sure he was okay. Sniffling and rubbing his eyes, he shakily made his way to Al's room, quietly opening his door. He smiled. Al was asleep, spread out on his back and snoring softly. Quietly Arthur kneeled down next to the bed and watched him for a while, Al's relaxed face and steady breathing was comforting and put him at ease quickly, eventually causing him to feel sleepy himself. Sighing he gave him one last glance and softly stroked his hair before curled up on the floor next to Al's bed, wanting to stay by his side, he slowly he drifted off to sleep.

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- end of chapter. Thankyou so much for reading! and thankyou so much to people who reviewed! it means alot~ (Tried to make it longer this time, sorry for spelling/grammar/mistakes/OCCness ect.) ^^


	9. Chapter 9

Al stirred at some point during the night. Maybe it was just his imagination screwing with him because of the horror movie, but he kept getting a weird feeling like there was something else in his room. Quietly he turned onto his side, trying to get into a more comfortable position and push away the images of creepy ghosts lurking by his bedside. Still a bit nervous, he stayed completely still for a while, holding his breath and straining his ears for any other sound in his room. Very faintly, he could hear something breathing nearby. Suppressing a shudder, Al sat up, quickly reasoning with himself that it was just his mind playing tricks on him and that maybe getting a drink or watching some TV would make him feel better. With that in mind he got up and headed for his door, but he hadn't even taken three steps when his foot collided with something soft, tripping him up and sending him face first into the floor with a thud. Groaning and cursing quietly, he sat up rubbing his nose and looked around irritably for what he had fallen over, guessing it had been a random pile of clothes he'd left lying about. To his surprise though, he found Arthur who was slowly uncurling himself and looking around himself, looking a bit dazed and confused. Worried, Al quickly crawled closer to him, taking his shoulders in his hands.

"Artie! Hey man, are you okay? What were you doing on the floor?" he asked concerned, giving him a quick glace over. He seemed to be fine though, he wasn't hurt or distressed or anything and Alfred relaxed again, a smile tugging at his lips after seeing Arthur's state. Arthur was looking back at him, mouth open slightly and with bleary, half-lidded eyes, his foggy brain still trying to process what was going on and what Al had just said to him. He rubbed his eyes a bit and yawned before answering, his voice still thick with sleep.

"…. m'sorry.. Al… didn't mean'ta wake you up…" he yawned widely again, his sharp fangs flashing and gave Al a sleepy smile in apology. Al couldn't help it as his smile broke into a grin, resisting a strong urge to squeeze him.

"Nah, it's fine, you didn't wake me… did you come here cause the movie scared you?" Arthur didn't answer, but he continued to smile at him, so Al guessed he was right. "…You know, you could of just woken me up, I don't mind. Or you could of just gotten in the bed rather than the floor… cause, you know, its cold and you'll get sick again if you sleep on the floor and stuff." he finished quickly. Arthur nodded but Al wasn't quite sure if he'd even understood him. He seemed to be half-asleep, his head nearly dropping a few times. With a short laugh, Al made up his mind and carefully pulled Arthur up by his shoulders and led him over to the bed, gently pushing him down onto the mattress. Arthur looked groggily up at him, a bit confused, but he kept quiet. Al grinned back and pulled the covers over him before walking around to the other side of the bed and crawling in himself. After laying down, he yawned loudly and taking a glance at Arthur it appeared that he'd already fallen asleep, shifting around until he was comfortable again he whispered a quiet 'goodnight' to Arthur before he closed his eyes. He heard a mumbled sound response in return but he couldn't make out the words, smiling he took it as a 'goodnight' anyway and fell asleep quickly. The room was peaceful ands still for a while, silver moonlight creeping in through the window, deepening the shadows and highlighting both its occupants who lay contentedly side by side and breathing evenly together. After a while though, the peace for one of them began to slip away as another, more recent, memory began to surface.

Sleep didn't last for long for Al, as in just over an hour later he was woken again by a weird and persistent sound near his ear. Sighing and rubbing his face, he tried to gather himself together and rolled onto his side, facing towards Arthur which was where the sound was coming from. He frowned tiredly. Arthur was whimpering, the sound muffled slightly with his face half pressed into his pillow and looking closer Al could just make out that his eyes were still closed though, so he must of been dreaming. Al stayed still, unsure of what to do… should leave him be or wake him up? Or try and comfort him or something? He didn't want to disturb him, but still wanted to help… But the longer Al watched the worse he seemed to get, his expression looked like he was in pain, his eyebrows furrowed together and ears pinned back. After a minute, his whimpering was getting louder and more frantic and he'd started twitching now. Al chewed his lip and moved closer to him, propping himself up on his elbow. Arthur's breathing sounded scattered and messed up and listening closely Al could make out him mumbling lots of random, half-spoken words that some sounded almost like 'let go', 'stop' and 'please'… it made Al feel uneasy, a bad feeling growing inside of him.

Al's frown deepened as he shifted closer, about to rest his hand on his shoulder when he noticed something else. Arthur's paw was clawing desperately near the inside of his arm, it looked a lot like he was trying to pull something off of it that wasn't there anymore, but instead his sharp pointed claws were catching his skin lightly, easily ripping through the bandage that was there and slicing open his skin, reopening some of the older cuts from where it seemed this had happened before. Shocked Al quickly grabbed onto the paws wrist, stopping the scratching. Some of the drops of blood began seeping into the sheets, staining them a deep red. At the contact, Arthur made a panicked, choking sound and weakly tried to tug his arm out of Al's grip, thrashing around a bit and mumbling more, louder words in distress. But Al didn't let up. Instead he determinedly put his arms around him and gently pulled him close, into a strong protective hug. Ignoring Arthur's weak struggles of protest and broken sobs, he began running his hand gently and repeatedly through his soft, messy hair and quietly shushed him, carefully rocking him back and forth and murmuring soft words of comfort into his ear in an attempt to calm him down. After a few minutes of this, he felt Arthur begin to relax, his struggling slowly ceased and after a last few defeated sounds and hitches in breath, he fell quiet again.

Al continued his actions for a while longer even after he'd settled down, just in case and because somewhere in the back of his mind he enjoyed it. Looking down at him, Al could see he was completely calm and normal again, oblivious to what was happening, though tear tracks glistened dimly in the moonlight, messing up his face. Letting out a tired sigh of relief, Al carefully loosened his grip around him and brought his hand up to wipe away some of the tears as best he could. He stayed like that for a while, watching the other in silence, almost scared to move in case he somehow broke the tranquil atmosphere now surrounding them.

Chiding himself, he pulled away very slightly, about to let him go when, to his surprise, Arthur suddenly gripped tightly onto him and pulled him close again in distress. Al froze. Shifting, Arthur gently mumbled his name in his sleep and wrapped his arms securely around Al's neck, holding onto him possessively. Alfred relaxed and let him hold onto his neck, he laughed quietly, for some reason happy that he'd said his name and unconsciously put his own arm around Arthur's shoulders and continued to stroke his hair. In the silence of the room, he could feel the quiet beat of Arthur's steady heartbeat and his regular breathing tickling his neck against gently, that along the warmth of his body pressed against him was forcing his eyes to slowly droop closed. He smiled as he fell asleep and with content, the last thing he felt before exhaustion finally took over him was Arthur nuzzling affectionately into his shoulder.

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- end of chap. Thankyou so much for reading! ^^ …(sorry this update took longer than the others, but I got caught up in some stuff….. Also srry its a short chapter and not much happens. at all. /and also for any bad mistakes/spelling/grammar etc and the OCCness) …


	10. Chapter 10

Eventually Arthur stirred. He felt nicely warm and could tell it was already quite late in the morning from the sunlight shining against his eyelids. He grunted softly, he really didn't want to wake up yet, it was way too comfortable and it was peaceful, so he decided to just snuggle back into his pillow. That was when he finally opened his eyes, confused. What he was holding onto didn't feel much like a pillow… that and he was pretty sure it'd just moved. The first thing he was greeted with when his vision focused was a pair of half lidded crystal blue eyes. Arthur stared back quietly for a moment, trying to get his brain working and comprehend the current situation. In the pause, Alfred gave him a lazy smile as he shifted a bit, seemingly stretching his shoulders. It was then that Arthur realised, with horror, that he had actually been sleeping against his chest, not a pillow and he was now still holding tightly onto his neck, which was probably preventing him from getting up. His stupor was interrupted by Al's groggy voice, sounding like he'd only just woken up too.

"Hey, mornin' Artie, you sleep all right?" he yawned, deciding not to mention anything about the nightmare or him coming into his room, in case it upset him… he had been half-asleep, so he probably couldn't remember much about it anyway.

Arthur nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He still hadn't got himself to let go and Al's face was distressingly close to his right now, he could almost feel his breath. He felt his cheeks heating up drastically and quickly turned his head away, hoping to hide it. Al shifted some more and carefully put an arm around Arthur's shoulders, slowly lifting him up along with himself as he sat up. Arthur's blush deepened, but for some reason he felt himself grip onto Al even tighter, not wanting to let him go and feeling unexpectedly panicked at the idea of Al leaving him somehow, making him stiffen momentarily. Alfred frowned noticing this and tilted his head to the side, trying to see Arthur's face better. In return, Arthur just turned his head away even more, stubbornly looking away. A bit worried at his behaviour Al gently put a hand under Arthur's chin and turned his face up to meet his gaze.

"Hey Arthur… is something wrong? What's the matter?" Al asked carefully. Arthur's face was all red and his expression was stubborn and mildly upset, but he didn't know why… maybe it was that nightmare still bothering him after all? He paused, thinking of what he could say to try and comfort him when Arthur closed his eyes and sighed shakily, his expression changing back to a more normal one as he managed to pull himself together again. He watched quietly as Arthur he gave him a half-grin and spoke almost shyly to him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine… sorry…" he trailed off, reluctantly releasing his grip on Al's neck. Alfred gave him a slightly concerned look but still smiled.

"Okay Artie… but ya know if you wanna talk or anything, just talk to me, okay? I'll be here and I don't mind listenin you know… all right?" Alfred said casually and grinned as Arthur gave him a genuine smile for his effort, seemingly pleased… and just maybe a little glassy eyed but Al shook it off as the light reflecting. He was cute when he smiled. After a few seconds of daydreaming he realised vaguely, that he still had his hand gripping Arthur's chin, holding him in place. Without even thinking he let his hand slide up to his cheek and started gently stroking the soft skin with him thumb. Arthur stared back at him, his expression unreadable and Al felt his heart skip a beat when he realised what he was doing. This time it was him who's face heated up and he quickly let go, scratching his neck and laughing awkwardly.

"hahaha… uhh, hey, so you wanna get dressed? I'll get you some clothes and the showers just in there if you want." Al pointed to the joined bathroom door, quickly getting up and quickly busying himself with searching through his draws for some clothes. Arthur stretched before he got up too, giving Al an amused second glance before following the direction where he'd pointed. That was the first time he'd ever seen Al blush… it was strangely adorable.

He took a quick shower and changed into the clothes that were left inside the bathroom door, the clothes were a little baggy on him but they were comfortable and he felt a lot better now that he'd been able to shower and felt clean. Looking around the room was empty, so he padded into the main room where he met Al by the kitchen who was drying his hair with a towel. He must have also had a shower in the other bathroom. Al flashed him a grin when he saw him, waving him over.

"Artie! The clothes a little big, huh?" he laughed. Giving him a glance over, the jeans were a bit too long and dragged on the floor… but he noticed that also meant they hid his legs and feet which would be useful when they went out in public. He had on a t-shirt now but if he gave him a jacket with long sleeves they'd be able to hide his arm too, so that meant the only thing left that needed hiding was the tail and ears… well, he'd just think of something for them later, it shouldn't be too hard really.

While thinking this, he pulled absentmindedly at one of the cupboard doors trying to open it, but it seemed to be stuck in place. Arthur sat down on one of the kitchen stool's watching him and Al looked quizzically at the door, wondering what why it was stuck and gave it another tug, only slightly harder. With a sudden loud splitting noise, the entire thing was ripped off its hinges and the door was left hanging uselessly from Al's hand. Arthur raised an eyebrow. It hadn't looked like he'd actually tried hard at all to open it and yet he somehow managed to do that without meaning to, Al was seriously a lot stronger than he looked. Alfred stood quietly still, looking at the small door in his hand and his expression was uncharacteristically placid, almost serious, causing Arthur to shift in his seat, slightly nervous.

"Wow, Al. You're quite strong… it's rather impressive…" Arthur spoke up, sounding mildly impressed. Alfred moved his attention back to him, flashing another one of his well used grins before answering.

"Yeah, I'm pretty cool huh? An awesome hero like me s'gotta be strong after all…" he laughed, waving his hand dismissively and putting the door on the kitchen counter. He was about to ask Arthur what he wanted for breakfast, when he stopped. Arthur was staring evenly at him, an odd, calculated expression on his face. Al stared back, confused.

"….What?" Al questioned, sounding slightly timid. Arthur stared at him a second longer before tilting his head sideways and answering.

"What's wrong?" Arthur asked, his voice curious and almost worried. Al frowned at him, looking even more confused.

"…What d'you mean?"

"I mean, what's the matter? You seemed kind of..… uh, sad?" Arthur answered gently, unsure how to describe it. When Al had said about being 'cool' and 'a hero' just after he'd ripped the door off, Arthur had noticed he'd sounded a little different than usual. Less boisterous and a tad more empty, almost like he was straining himself to sound cheerful and for a brief moment when he grinned, his eye's had looked hurt, betraying his facade. Arthur was concerned, he was rather observant and could easily tell something was off, he didn't like it when Al was like this… it didn't suit him. He wanted to help, to make sure he was okay. But that being said, he didn't want to pressure or push him if he didn't want to talk or make him sad. It probably wasn't his place to nose into his personal life anyway… maybe Alfred wouldn't want to open up to him? That would be understandable, considering he was just…

Alfred fidgeted while Arthur looked like he was thinking. There was a reason why he'd been like that, but it had seriously caught him off guard that had Arthur noticed. He'd always been able to hide it well from everyone else, or so he thought. Glancing back at Arthur he saw he was looking a little guilty. Al sighed, he wanted to just laugh it all off and carry on like usual, but there was something deep inside him, nagging at him to tell Arthur… he'd never been able to open up to anyone before and this was his chance, Arthur was the only one who he believed would actually listen and wouldn't judge him… well, he knew Arthur wouldn't judge him actually, he seemed understanding and Al couldn't help but trust him. He felt a small smile tug a his lips at that thought.

Meanwhile Arthur winced slightly, feeling guilt hit him. He didn't want to upset Al or make him uncomfortable and he was about to speak up and apologise when Al spoke up first.

"… yeah… actually, its just, that happens sometimes. I get these kind of uh, 'flash back' things when I do stupid stuff like that…" Al spoke nervously, scratching his neck again, but smiled. Happy he was able to share this with someone.

"Flash backs?… what happened?" Arthur looked at him with interest and hidden worry, sensing Al wanted to tell him about this. Alfred sat down on a stool opposite Arthur, showing an uneasy grin.

"Well, you see, for some reason I've always been really really, like weirdly, strong. I don't know why. So stuff like you saw has happened a lot…. When I was younger Mattie and I lived with mom and dad, but dad was always away on work or business, whatever, so mom got pretty lonely. She… she was kind of well, unstable. She would be happy and really kind one minute… but then, for no reason, she would suddenly turn and be… different. violent. Like she'd turn into someone else completely…" Arthur listened intently as he spoke and gently nodded for him to carry on, patiently letting him talk at his own pace. Alfred smiled back gratefully, getting more confident as he spoke.

"…and well, usually we could handle it, me and Matt cause we always had each other… Matt would get scared and cry sometimes, but he always looked out for me, no matter how stupid or annoying I was, he would always stay by my side. He's the best brother you could ask for. But one day. Mom took him upstairs to play a game, she said, and I wasn't allowed to go up there… but I did anyway, and I found them in her bedroom by the window. She had her hands around Matt's neck, choking him. His feet weren't even on the ground and he was crying and choking, and I thought she was going to kill him….. so I ran and pushed her, just to try and make her let go. She did... But she flew back… smashing through the window, screaming. We were on the second floor, but the police said, apparently she didn't die from the fall but she actually landed on a shard of glass that had stabbed her, puncturing her lung… so.. she slowly, and painfully, bled to death from the inside… I killed her like that…"

Al trailed off, taking a breath and swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat. He thought he'd gotten over it by now, but retelling it was more upsetting than he had thought it would be and he knew he probably had tears in his eyes but refused acknowledge them, instead trying to push himself to continue. Before he could though he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, embracing him tightly. Arthur couldn't stop himself from hugging him, a deep pang of pity washing through him. It was almost painful. Al hugged back and carefully he rested his head against Arthur's chest, listening to his heartbeat, which was easiest since he was sitting and Arthur was standing now.

"You know, I remember looking down at her from the window… there was loads of blood pouring from her mouth. It was kinda like a river. And I remember she had looked up at me, straight in the eye as she died. She looked so disgusted and hated me so much, she wished I was the one she'd killed. I mean, don't blame her, cause I did kill her and all… but it still kinda hurt a lot. Even after she died though, things weren't a lot better, dad didn't blame me but he still put his work first, so we were alone most of the time. Rumours through school spread, everyone said I was a murderer… a freak, being this strong… even Mattie got abuse from them and he didn't even do anything wrong…. I killed his mom, its my fault she's dead and that he was bullied, but he still doesn't hate me…. "

He trailed off, finished talking and looking shaken and pretty depressed. Arthur still held him, murmuring quietly to him.

"I'm so sorry, Al. It's not you're fault, it wasn't your fault. At all… You know, you saved Matt from her… if you hadn't done that he would be dead. And you're mum… I'm sorry, but she deserved it, you didn't do anything wrong. It was brave, no matter what people said, their all just a bunch of tossers. You really are a hero, okay Al?" Arthur said comfortingly, but a little unsure. He wasn't used to comforting people, this was actually the first time and he wasn't sure if he was just making things worse for him. Thankfully Al smiled at him. Arthur sighed slightly and smiled back, glad he looked a bit better than before. He was about to pull away when Al pulled him back into a tighter hug and mumbled a _thank you_ into his ear, before releasing him and giving a grin. Arthur nodded, taking another quiet breath now that the atmosphere was returning to normal and Al stood up, still grinning, feeling strangely relived and lighter after finally being able to talk to someone openly about what had happened and from the kind, reassuring words from Arthur. He was happy he didn't judge him or say he was being whiney, and he was happy that he could finally feel a bit better about himself.

Al looked gratefully at Arthur, who had his head tilted cutely to one side, giving him a small smile. Taking a chance, Al placed both his hands on Arthur's shoulders and bent down slightly, gently pressing his lips against Arthur's.

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- ending chap there, Thankyou for reading! :3 (sorry for mistakes/spelling/OCCness etc…) (

edit: sorry! accidentally put up chap 9 again, tried to replace it now ^^'''


	11. Chapter 11

Arthur stood frozen in place, eyes wide and un-breathing. Time around him almost seemed to have slowed momentarily and his mind felt distant, his thoughts glitching up. He could feel Al's soft lips pressing against his, but he didn't know how to respond to it. It wasn't like he was stupid, he knew what a kiss was from watching other humans and such, but he'd never received a real one himself before (Scott didn't count. The things he did really weren't classed as… 'affection') and he never expected he ever would in his lifetime. It confused him greatly. Why would Alfred kiss something like him? …it must just be a mistake somehow, a joke, that's all. Surely Al couldn't have those kind of feelings for him… with his looks he could probably have anyone he wanted, so why the hell would he choose such a disgusting freak such as himself?…. But… Then again, the more he thought about it. Alfred wasn't much like other humans, was he? He was so different, he seemed so much kinder, more understanding. Just maybe, it wasn't as impossible as he first thought…

Vaguely, Arthur felt the warmth of Al's lips withdraw from his, pulling him from his thoughts and to the present. He felt strangely sad at the loss of contact, but watched silently and unsure as Al looked uneasily back at him, his light crystal blue eyes peering nervously into deep forest green ones, as if searching for something. The room was very still, but not overly tense, the only thing heard being heard between them was muffled noise of traffic from outside, a loud ticking from the old clock in the kitchen and two sets of quiet breathing.

Inside Al was panicking, his heart was beating way too fast inside of his ears and he was terrified he'd just completely screwed everything up and possibly scared Arthur away from him after being much too direct and impulsive like that. He felt so stupid. He'd finally gotten his trust and they'd just barely started to get to know each other and he'd already ruined his chances with him and probably just lost a friend… why did he always have to be such an idiot? Unknowingly holding his breath, he looked into Arthur's eyes, expecting to see rejection, maybe even disgust or fear. Instead he was surprised to see confusion. Al stared back at him, eyes locked, for a few quiet beats, but after not seeing any signs of getting a verbal response from him, he decided to search deeper into the unnaturally green orbs. He felt strange, he realised distantly. It was odd. It almost seemed like there was some sort of invisible… _energy _there, slowly swirling around in circles, dangerously and ominous, like a deep whirlpool, hidden secretly behind Arthur's eyes. It was almost hypnotising. Al realised he was beginning to feel uncomfortably warm and he dizzily thought that it somehow felt like his mind, like his very existence, was somehow being detached from his body and was being pulled gently, yet steadily down into the spinning depths of nothing… emptiness. Feeling a sudden stab of fear in his heart, he closed his eyes and swallowed nauseously as a strong wave of motion sickness washed through him.

Quickly after closing his eyes, everything stopped spinning and he took a shallow, steadying breath. Al opened is eyes again and thankfully the horrible feeling of mixed sickness and dizziness vanished almost immediately. Pulling himself back together and not put off by the weird event, he looked back at Arthur again, figuring it was just brain messing with him because he was too tired or the stress was just getting to him a bit or maybe he just needed a hamburger or something. This time though, he was slightly more wary and made sure he didn't look quiet so deeply into his eyes. Along with confusion he could now make out curiosity, maybe a tiny bit of sadness but he wasn't sure and just slightly, a small glimmer of… hope? His heart nearly fluttered and he felt his confidence increase. Arthur wasn't pushing him away, he wasn't angry or scared, so maybe there was a chance he felt the same way? Carefully he squeezed Arthur's shoulders (which he just noticed he'd been holding the whole time) and took another breath before speaking, still unsure about what he was going to say.

"…Arthur….. I… I'm-"

"Why?" Al was interrupted by a quiet, mumbled voice. Arthur had his face hidden now, having shifted his gaze to look at the floor. There was a small pause in which Al tried to think carefully of how to choose his next words, when Arthur spoke again. "Why would you…. do something, like that… with, with _me?_" Al raised an eyebrow at how Arthur had spoken. It had sounded like he was more ashamed of himself, rather than what Al had done. Feeling more confident that his feelings weren't completely one-sided, Al spoke up, hoping he would mess anything up.

"I like you, Arthur."

"…..Why?"

"… I don't know why, I just do… I like you a lot. I've liked you since we first met."

"…. But, why? I'm not… I'm just…" Arthur trailed off meekly, not wanting to finish that sentence. Al frowned, his words upsetting him. He didn't like or agree with how Arthur's seemed to perceive himself and it didn't seem like this would get them anywhere. Very carefully, not wanting to startle him, he placed his hand under Arthur's chin and gently turned his face up to meet his gaze for the second time since they'd met. His expression was unreadable, except for the slowly deepening blush forming across his cheeks.

"Arthur, do you… like me too?" Al asked clearly, but still casually not wanting to pressure him. Somewhere deep down he had a strong suspicion that Arthur did like him, but he needed to hear it himself. Arthur stayed quiet for a while and Al couldn't quite tell if he was thinking or just didn't want to answer right away. He was about to speak again when Arthur nodded cautiously. Al couldn't help as he broke into a smile. "Is that a yes?" Al asked hopefully, leaning slightly closer and moving his arm so it was around Arthur's shoulder lightly. Arthur smiled back at him in return, but Al couldn't help but notice that it looked quite pained, more like a grimace. Al frowned again and made a small humming noise in question, wondering what was wrong.

"Alfred… I'm not human…"

"… yeah, I know…"

"… then this is… I mean, it's not allowed, it's… well, it's wrong…"

"I don't care." Al stated firmly. Arthur looked at him quizzically, seeming almost sceptical but still grinned all the same. Al tightened his grip around Arthur's shoulder comfortingly. "So, what do you say?"

Arthur laughed quietly his stubborn attitude before leaning up himself so that he was closer. He was still very confused as to why Al would choose him, but he gave up on trying to figure out his reasons and just be thankful. He'd also taken a liking to the human when they'd met, it was just hard for him to ever imagine he could actually be liked back. Giving a genuine smile he carefully closed the space between them, pressing his lips to Alfred's.

.

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- end of chap. Thank you for reading! And thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! It means a lot and keeps me going. ^^

(sorry for how late (and short/rushed) this chapter is but I've been caught up in stuff and actually managed to forget about this story (yeah, my memory's really pretty bad sometimes))

- sorry for mistakes/spelling/OCCness etc… ^^


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